Cbe  Sacrifice  cf  a Race 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A RACE 


By  Dr.  P.  B.  Barringer,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

An  address  delivered  by  him  before  the  Race 
Conference  at  Montgomery,  Ala., 

May  ioth,  1900. 


Copies  of  this  address  may  be  had,  for  twenty  cents  each, 
at  Anderson  Bros.,  Charlottesville,  Va. 


RALEIGH,  N.  C. 

Edwards  & Broughton,  Printers  and  Binders 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/sacrificeofraceOObarr 


PREFACE. 


The  history  of  the  negro,  as  a race,  is  one  of  profound 
pathos.  From  time  immemorial  and  in  all  places  he  has 
been  the  burden-bearer,  the  plaything,  the  tool  and  the  dis- 
carded dupe  of  his  more  fortunate  brothers.  Where  are 
the  fifteen  thousand  negroes  imported  into  Great  Britain 
before  the  “trade”  was  abolished  ? Gone ! Where  are 
those  taken  to  Portugal  and  Spain  by  pious  ( ?)  Prince 
Henry  “in  order  that  they  might  be  made  Christians?” 
Gone  ! Xot  a trace.  Where  are  the  thousands  which  Car- 
thage, before  the  Punic  wars,  furnished  Rome?  An  occa- 
sional suspicious  excess  in  the  richness  of  Neapolitan  tint 
is  seemingly  the  sole  remainder.  Yet  he  has  always  served 
well.  lie  served  us  here  in  the  South  long  and  faithfully, 
but,  in  view  of  what  is  now  seen,  can  it  be  claimed  that  we 
worked  the  negro  harder  or  more  effectually  than  the  aboli- 
tionists unwittingly  “worked”  him?  The  effect  of  their 
working  was  seen  in  the  war,  the  hardness  of  it  in  his  pres- 
ent condition.  W ell  may  belated  philanthropy  pour  out  its 
gold,  but  if  they  paid  till  the  very  soil  of  the  South  could 
be  worked  as  an  ore,  they  could  not  atone  to  him.  Can 
millions  save  him  ? I am  afraid  not — it  is  full  late.  Few 
appreciate  how  far  he  has  already  gone  back  to  original 
racial  tendencies.  Here  is  an  intelligent,  upright,  honest 
negro,  and  there  another,  but  they,  as  a rule,  were  bom 
slaves;  few  indeed  are  the  men  of  promise  under  thirty 


4 


years  of  age  and  fewer  under  twenty ; and  so  strong  is  the 
downward  current  that  most  of  them  who  stand  fast  are 
destroyed  by  attrition. 

If  the  young  negro  can  be  taught  to  work  he  can  be 
saved.  Will  industrial  training  do  this?  It  may  if  sim- 
plified or  limited  to  agriculture.  The  present  system  of 
industrial  education  gives  too  little  industry  and  too  much 
education.  We  might  as  well,  moreover,  be  frank  and  con- 
fess that  the  trades  unions,  fast  coming  into  the  South,  will 
not  let  a negro  work  at  a trade.  Here,  as  well  as  North, 
when  it  comes  to  a fight,  industrial  or  otherwise,  between 
white  and  black,  the  whites  are  for  the  whites.  What 
then  ? Compassion,  charity  and  mercy ; missionaries, 
churches  and  hospitals — i.  e.,  euthanasia. 

But  there  can  be  no  euthanasia  for  him  who  knows  the 
symptoms  of  his  disease  and  the  physiological  effects  of 
the  anodyne.  Educate  then,  henceforth,  the  soul  and  the 
hand — more  than  the  mind. 


“THE  SACRIFICE  OF  A RACE.” 


In  the  summer  of  1619  there  sailed  into  Chesapeake 
Bay  an  English  privateer,  cruising  under  foreign  letters  of 
marque  (Savoyan),  which  had  on  board  what  remained  of 
a hundred  negroes  captured  from  a Spanish  vessel  in  the 
West  Indies.  This  privateer*,  “The  Treasurer,”  was  com- 
manded by  Captain  Daniel  Elfrith,  and  leaving  twenty  of 
these  negroes  at  Jamestown,  he  sailed  for  Bermuda,  where 
he  placed  the  remainder  on  the  Earl  of  Warwick’s  planta- 
tion on  that  island.  Of  these  twenty  negroes  two  became 
the  property  of  William  Tucker  (“gentleman”),  of  Eliza- 
beth City  County.  These,  a man  and  a woman,  he  named 
respectively,  Anthony  and  Isabel!,  and  to  them  was  born 
a child,  “baptized”  William,  seemingly  the  first  American 
of  African  descent  born  on  this  continent.  [Brown’s 
“Genesis  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  886,  1034.] 
The  birth  of  this  child  inaugurated  a new  race,  and  'one 
whose  history  I am  here  to-day  to  recall  and  whose  end  I 
am  here  to  predict. 

The  salient  features  of  the  history  of  this  race  up  to  the 
present  are  about  as  follows : A race  of  savage  blacks, 

with  one  exception — the  original  tribes  of  Australia — the 
lowest  of  human  kind,  with  fifty  centuries  of  unbroken  bar- 
barism behind  them,  were  torn  from  their  native  tropical 
land  and  transported  to  a republic  founded  as  an  asylum 
for  those  seeking  to  be  free.  But  these  blacks  came  not 
here  for  freedom  ; they  were  brought  against  their  will,  and 
to  be  slaves.  It  was  not  alone  against  their  own  will  that 
they  came.  They  came  against  the  general  wish  of  the 
Southern  colonists,  for  while  the  pious  clergy  of  New 
England  were  hailing  the  arrival  of  a slaver  with  praver- 


* Privateers  at  this  time  were  called  “ Dutch  men  of  war." 


6 


fill  thanks,  “because  a gracious  and  over-ruling  Providence 
had  been  pleased  to  bring  to  this  land  of  freedom  another 
cargo  of  benighted  heathen  to  enjoy  the  blessing  of  a Gos- 
pel dispensation,”  [Curry’s  “Southern  States  of  American 
Union,”  p.  163]  the  colonies  of  Virginia  and  South  Caro- 
lina were  petitioning  the  mother  country  to  stop  the  slave 
trade.  But  the  stock  of  the  Guinea  Company  was  owned 
in  high  places,  [Brown’s  Genesis  of  the  United  States, 
p.  981,]  and  the  colonists  continued  to  be  tempted,  while 
the  daily  demonstrated  fitness  of  the  blacks  for  hard  labor 
in  this  sunny  clime  caused  a gradual  change  in  the  colonial 
sentiment.  In  a virgin  land  of  incomparable  fertility 
strong  laborers  were,  of  course,  extremely  useful,  and 
hence  much  valued.  Being  valuable  they  were  allowed  to 
multiply,  but  this  under  a careful  selective  process  of 
breeding  that  outstripped  nature  itself.  Docility,  de- 
cency, fealty  and  vigor  were  desired,  and  the  slave  man 
having  these  attributes,  with  his  master’s  “pass,”  scorned 
the  rural  “paterroller”  and  roamed  at  will  to  replenish  the 
earth.  This  selective  propagation  in  which  intelligence 
made  use,  in  order,  of  animal  desire,  infant  hygiene,  race 
tendency  to  mimicry,  the  glamour  of  feudalism,  and  even 
religion  itself,  not  only  caused  the  negro  to  increase  in 
numbers,  but  also  to  improve  in  kind.  In  a few  genera- 
tions the  spindle-shanked  and  pot-bellied  Ibo  (Eboi)  im- 
proved in  shape  as  well  as  feature.  The  vigorous  blue- 
black  Wolof,  the  blackest  but  the  finest  of  the  West  Coast 
negroes,  and  of  whom  not  over  a thousand  a year  were  im- 
ported, became  the  type  and  the  ideal.  Mandingans, 
Ashantis,  Fans,  Yorubas,  one  and  all,  were  made  to  con- 
form, for  the  large  were  tempted  with  the  small  and  the 
weak  with  the  strong.  The  laws  of  breeding  obtained 
through  centuries  of  experience  with  the  lower  animals  had 
here  found  a wider  and  a higher  field.  American  slavery 


has  been  described,  and  rightly,  as  “the  greatest  missionary 
effort  in  human,  history,”  but,  in  its  early  stages,  it  was 
more  than  this : it  was  the  first  and  only  application  of 
intelligent  hygiene  to  a special  race,  and  that  it  should  have 
been  successful  in  improving  it  was  natural,  for  the  intelli- 
gence which  was  most  potent  in  the  upbuilding  of  this 
republic,  then  and  afterwards,  in  fair  measure  divided  its 
time  with  the  abstruse  problem  of  slave  propagation.  But 
under  this  intelligent  stimulus  the  increase  was  so  great 
that  the  plantations  of  the  East  were  quickly  stocked  and 
the  westward  migration  of  younger  sons  with  young  fami- 
lies of  slaves  necessarily  inaugurated  that  separation  of 
families  which  was  the  first  thing  to  influence  the  senti- 
ment of  the  South  against  slavery.  From  this  time  ofl  the 
multiplication  of  the  negro  steadily  declined,  for  its  neces- 
sary evils  and  dangers  were  now  seen.  But  by  this  time, 
under  artificial  conditions,  the  vigor  and  prepotency  of  this 
lace  of  exotics  had  been  established.  They  increased  so 
rapidly  that  it  alarmed  the  whites  and  forced  the  transpor- 
tation of  slaves  to  more  southern  and  western  territories 
to  avoid  a dangerous  local  predominance. 

The  first  stage  of  the  slave  problem  now  faced  them. 
It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  the  sentiment  of  the 
age  favored  slavery  and  any  feeling  against  it  in  any  quar- 
ter was  influenced  solely  by  local  conditions.  To-day  there 
is  not  a State  in  Xew  England  that  can  maintain  its  negro 
population  without  importation,*  and  tve  can  well  imagine 
what  must  have  been  the  state  of  affairs  with  the  crude 
hygiene  of  colonial  days.  Being  unprofitable  in  Xew 
England,  slavery  there  naturally  became  unpopular,  but 

* Dr.  Fisher,  for  many  years  registrar  of  vital  statistics  for  Rhode 
Island  says:  “We  must  conclude,  however  reluctantly,  that  the 
race  negro)  is  not  self-sustaining  in  this  climate.'’  The  registrar  of 
Massachusetts  reluctantly  admits  the  same  thing. — Hoffman's  Ameri- 
can Negro , p.  36. 


8 


not  until  long  after  it  had  become  a problem  of  danger  in 
the  South.  In  1780,  when  Massachusetts,  the  first  to  act, 
freed  her  remaining  handful  of  slaves,  the  four  States  of 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
had  almost  a half  million.  It  was  then  too  late  to  let  go ; 
the  South  could  only  hold  on  and  make  the  best  of  it 

It  was  soon  seen  that  the  American-bred  negro  was  so 
much  better  than  the  “salt-water  black”  that  this,  coupled 
with  the  alarming  increase  in  the  Southern  colonies,  made 
the  South  demand  the  abolition  of  the  trade.  In  this  she 
was  out-voted  by  the  North,  whose  interests  now  lay  in 
slave  transport  rather  than  in  slave  labor.  This  demand 
ultimately  became  so  strong  on  the  part  of  the  South  that 
the  government  was  forced  to  stop  the  trade,  but  only  after 
twenty  years  lease  of  life  had  been  added,  [As  the  result  of 
what  Washington  called  a “dirty  bargain”  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  voted  with  the  North  and  permitted  this. 
North  Carolina  met  this  by  putting  a tax  of  £5  on  every 
negro  imported  after  1788,]  carrying  it  to  1808.  If  the 
rate  of  negro  increase  for  the  first  hundred  years  of  slavery 
had  been  maintained  to  the  present  day,  there  would  be 
nearly  26,000,000  negroes  in  the  United  States.  [Dar- 
by’s table,  “View  of  the  United  States,”  p.  439.]  But 
this  was  not  to  be,  and  it  never  will  be ; America  will  never 
see  26,000,000  negroes  within  its  limits. 

The  reason  that,  it  was  not  to  be  was  that  there  was  early 
abroad  in  parts  of  this  land,  as  one  of  its  characteristic 
features,  a spirit  of  sentimental  altruism  which  was 
founded  on  the  glittering  generalities  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  a campaign  document,  rather  than  on 
the  cold,  logical  and  business-like  statements  of  the  consti- 
tution. This  new  cult  placed  itself  above  religion,  above 
Christianity,  and  demanded  a new  Bible  and  a new  Christ, 
because  Christ  and  the  old  Bible  [Exodus  21 :6]  both 


9 


recognized  slavery.  It  has  been  charged  that  this  high  and 
holy  altruism  was  tinctured  with  the  baser  motives  of  pol- 
icy, sectional  jealousy,  and  even  with  the  remains  of  an 
old  Puritan-Cavalier  hatred;  but  we  of  the  South  are  of 
necessity  biased  judges.  At  any  rate,  the  logical  and  inev- 
itable result  of  such  a spirit  of  universal  brotherhood  as 
then  prevailed  was  the  demand,  sooner  or  later,  on  the  part 
of  the  Xorth,  where  this  epidemic  was  prevalent,  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery. 

The  South,  knowing  that  the  negro  could  never  be  main- 
tained within  its  borders  as  a freedman,  refused.  Tor 
years  the  fight  went  on,  various  compromises  and  plans 
being  suggested,  but  none  being  satisfactory.  From  the 
beginning  of  this  century  up  to  1860,  the  political  history 
of  this  country  consisted  of  a long  parliamentary  fight  for 
and  against  slavery.  The  great  men  of  the  South  and  of 
the  Union,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Ran- 
dolph, Macon,  Clay,  Calhoun  and  others,  were  all  slave 
owners,  but  all  equally  abhorred  the  evil  practices  of 
slavery.  Xot  one  of  these  ever  dared  urge  general  eman- 
cipation for  the  South  where  the  negroes  were  numerous ; 
and  whenever  any  of  them  manumitted  their  own  slaves 
they  endeavored  to  send  them  out  of  the  South.  Randolph 
even  bought  land  in  Ohio  and  there  set  up  his  slaves  in 
freedom,  but  they  were  not  allowed  to  remain.  [Mrs.  A. 
Dixon’s  History  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  p.  249.]  The 
reason  of  all  this  was  that  these  men,  as  slave  owners,  knew 
the  negro  and  knew  that  underneath  his  dusky  skin  the 
simple  intelligence  of  a child  was  combined  with  the  in- 
stincts of  a veritable  savage.  They  felt  and  knew  that 
the  negro  as  a freedman  could  not  exist  in  America.  They 
had  seen  and  were  familiar  with  the  original  cannibal 
African  from  which  their  loyal  and  affectionate  slaves  had 
sprung,  and  they  knew  that  force,  unobtrusive  but  steady 
2 


10 


and  persistent  force,  was  necessary  to  the  continuance  in 
well-doing  of  this  race  of  pagans  but  recently  reclaimed. 
But  in  1860  compromise  failed,  and  though  disguised  in 
other  forms,*  the  demand  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
became  urgent ; then  came  thewar. 

For  our  present  purpose  the  most  remarkable  thing 
about  that  war  was  the  fact  that  while  its  initial  act  con- 
sisted in  the  uprising  of  a few  slaves  on  the  border,  under 
the  influence  of  white  persuasion,  the  slaves  of  the  true 
South  could  not  be  induced  to  rise  against  their  masters. 
Had  the  Southern  man  not  known  the  negro,  he  would 
have  thought  as  the  North  thought,  that  he  was  fighting 
with  foes  behind  him  as  well  as  in  front ; but  he  knew,  as 
he  alone  coidd  know,  that  the  negro  was  contented  and 
happy  in  slavery.  Had  they  been  but  let  alone  they  would 
have  remained  contented.  At  all  events  when  put  to  the 
test,  the  negro  did  not  turn  against  the  wife  and  children 
of  his  absent  master,  when  everything  possible  favored  an 
uprising.  Negro  regiments  were  organized,  armed,  and 
paraded  up  and  down  the  border;  brass  bands  were 
played,  incendiary  speeches  made  and  altruism  preached 
with  a whoop,  but  the  negroes  did  not  rise.  As  Professor 
Shaler,  of  Harvard,  well  says:  “If  the  accepted  account 

of  the  negro  had  been  true,  if  he  had  been  for  generations 
groaning  in  servitude  while  he  passionately  longed  for  lib- 
erty, the  South  should  have  flamed  in  insurrection  at  the 
first  touch  of  war.  We  should  have  seen  a repetition  of  the 
horrors  of  many  a civil  insurrection.  It  is  a most  notable 
fact  that  during  the  four  years  of  the  great  contention 

* After  the  war  Senator  Ingalls,  of  Kansas,  said : “ Waged  ostensi- 
bly to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  in  denial  of  the 
dogma  of  State  sovereignty,  the  future  historian  will  not  fail  to  note 
that  the  three  amendments”  which  he  calls  the  “trophies  of  the 
victors,”  chiefly  “relate  to  the  freedom,  citizenship  and  suffrage  of 
the  negro  race.” — Curry's  South,  p.  219. 


11 


when  the  blacks  had  every  opportunity  to  rise,  there  was 
no  real  mark  of  a disposition  to  turn  upon  their  masters. 
On  thousands  of  Southern  farms  the  fighting  men  left 
their  women  and  children  in  the  keeping  of  their  slaves 
while  they  fought  for  a cause  whose  success  meant  that 
those  slaves  could  never  be  free.”  [Popular  Science 
Monthly,  March,  1900,  p.  520.]  They  were  happy  and 
did  not  wish  to  be  free.  On  this  historic  fact  the  South 
takes  her  stand,  and  all  the  theories  of  the  world  will  not 
prevail  against  it. 

To  the  people  of  the  South  the  war  of  secession  was  prac- 
tical annihilation.  When  that  contest  and  its  results  are 
compared  with  others  of  similar  condition  and  circum- 
stances, it  will  be  seen  that  no  people  ever  came  nearer  the 
giving  of  their  absolute  all  to  a cause  than  did  the  people  of 
the  South  to  the  Southern  Confederacy.  Notwithstanding 
this  I have  yet  to  meet  the  man  of  Southern  lineage  who 
does  not  say  with  me  that  all  the  blood  and  all  the  treasure 
given  to  that  cause  would  have  been  well  spent  had  it 
effectually  and  for  all  time  freed  America  from  the  negro. 
But  this  it  has  not  yet  done  as  the  people  of  the  South  well 
know. 

Accustomed  as  they  were  to  the  presence  of  the  negro, 
the  people  of  the  South  were,  after  the  war,  slow  to  appre- 
ciate the  fact  that  although  the  negro  was  gone  as  a slave, 
he  was  in  no  sense  removed  as  a burden.  As  they  gath- 
ered around  their  broken  hearthstones  and  desolate  altars, 
trying  to  keep  alive  and  restore  to  flame  the  embers  of  a 
civilization  that  they  swore  in  their  hearts  should  never 
perish,  they  had  little  time  for  thought  as  to  the  future  of 
the  negro  as  a freedman,  for  they  looked  beyond  the  negro 
as  the  source  of  their  then  present  evils. 

As  time  passed  on  the  Southern  people  began  to  see  that 
the  war  with  all  its  losses  had  so  far  solved  nothing,  and 


12 


the  white  man’s  burden  was  still  upon  them  and  upon  them 
alone.  The  savage,  which  their  own  insane  folly  had 
allowed  them  to  buy  and  to  breed,  was,  without  other  re- 
straint than  the  law,  henceforth  to  be  their  close  associate 
and  neighbor.  Of  necessity  they  tided  to  make  the  best  of 
their  condition,  and  they  endeavored  to  explain  to  him  the 
law,  and  then  for  the  first  time  were  reminded  that  for  the 
negro  there  was  neither  the  concept  nor  the  word  for  law, 
as  we  know  it.  Could  anything  else  have  been  expected? 
Where  was  the  negro  when  our  ancestors  wrung  from  halt- 
ing royalty  Magna  Charta  ? Where  was  he  when  the  Peti- 
tion of  Right,  Habeas  Corpus  and  the  Bill  of  Rights  gave 
to  us  and  to  our  children  forever  these  benefits  for  which 
our  fathers  fought?  "Where  was  he?  He  was  an  unal- 
loyed pagan  in  a tropical  jungle,  savage,  brutal  and  igno- 
rant— a cannibal  and  a trader  in  human  flesh — two  women 
for  a “plug”  hat,  a man  for  a handkerchief  and  a child 
for  a Jew’s  harp. 

In  his  racial  history  from  pagan  to  citizen  he  had  never 
felt  the  emotions  which  called  into  existence  our  bulwarks 
of  human  right  and  liberty;  stripes  and  shackles  he  had 
known,  but  neither  the  law  nor  the  reason  thereof ; force, 
brutal  force  in  his  own  land,  and  unobtrusive  but  unabat- 
ing force  in  America.  Ho  appeal  had  ever  been  made  to 
his  sense  of  right,  and  the  only  appeal  for  which  he  had 
ear  was  the  emphatic  demand  of  power. 

The  people  of  the  South  next  tried  to  instruct  the  negro 
in  the  economics ; they  tried  to  teach  him  how  and  to  make 
him  provide  for  the  morrow,  and  again  without  a thought 
as  to  his  racial  history.  They  should  have  recalled  the 
fact  that  for  over  fifty  centuries  [Erman  in  his  “Ancient 
Egypt”  puts  the  negro  as  a slave  in  Egypt  as  early  as 
2500-3500  B.  C.,]  of  recorded  history  the  negro  had  lived 
in  tropical  Africa  where  every  law  of  nature  conspired  to 


13 


make  him  improvident  and  thoughtless  of  the  future. 
They  should  have  recalled  that  as  the  slave  of  a slave  mas- 
ter, who  was,  in  turn,  the  slave  of  some  petty  chieftain 
whose  only  title  to  royalty  was  his  superlative  savagery,  he 
had  lived  without  guarantee  of  the  morrow,  feeling  that  his 
life  might  be  demanded  at  any  instant.  He  thus  of  neces- 
sity lived  for  the  pleasures  of  the  hour  until  it  grew  into'  a 
racial  attribute,  and  the  happy,  thoughtless,  goodnatured 
negro  of  days  agone  was  true  to  his  phylogenv.  This  was 
the  alarming  condition  that  faced  the  South  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  The  old  slave  was,  in  the  main,  loyal  and 
faithful,  but  as  he  was  rapidly  becoming  a knave’s  dupe  as 
a voter,  what  would  the  next  generation  be  ? In  their  per- 
plexity the  South  thought  that  the  education  of  the  negro 
would  solve  their  problem,  so  they  divided  in  fair  measure 
their  own  taxes  with  him  (he  had  nothing)  and  began.  For 
thirty  years,  ever  increasing,  never  diminishing,  they  have 
poured  out  their  hard-earned  cash  for  him  at  the  expense 
of  the  poor  among  their  own  people.  What  this  has  done 
for  him,  we  shall  see  later,  but  first  let  us  see  what  he  and 
his  friends  did  for  the  South. 

For  more  than  a decade  after  the  war  the  South  had 
what  in  popular  speech  is  called  “a  hard  time.”  A de- 
graded and  alien  race,  but  recently  slaves,  had,  by  con- 
gvi  ssional  enactment,  been  placed  in  control  of  eleven 
once  sovereign  Southern  States.  Men  of  this  race  whose 
grandfathers  had  decided  between  guilt  and  innocence 
through  the  chance  of  direct  or  reversed  peristalsis  with 
the  “ordeal  bean,”*  sat  in  judgment  over  men  whose  fore- 
fathers had  fought  at  Yorktown,  Guilford,  Kings  Moun- 

* Calabar  bean  (Physostigma  venenosum)  a poison  of  purgative- 
emetic  properties,  used  on  the  Niger  to  determine  guilt  or  inno- 
cence. If  the  accused  vomits  and  recovers  he  is  adjudged  innocent, 
while  if  he  does  not  vomit  and  dies,  he  is  considered  as  having  been 
guilty. 


14 


tain  and  New  Orleans.  Negro  men  who  would  turn  back 
from  any  journey  however  needful  if  “a  cat  crossed  the 
road  behind  them,”  boldly  launched  public  enterprises  that 
obligated  the  State  for  millions.  I have  myself  heard  the 
“Speaker”  of  a Southern  Legislature  addressed  from  the 
floor  as  “Marse  Robert.”  Happy  indeed  in  that  day  were 
those  possessed  of  a sense  of  humor,  for  the  explosions  of 
mirth  alone  prevented  the  explosions  of  wrath.  But  these 
things  passed.  Amendments  to  the  constitution  count  as 
naught  when  pitted  against  the  inexorable  laws  of  nature, 
and  in  time  the  white  man  came  to  his  own.  The  Southern 
people  now  simply  laugh  at  these  episodes ; they,  as  before 
stated,  looked  beyond  the  negro  and  were  content  to  wait. 
But  while  they  waited  they  worked. 

For  twenty  long  years  they  strained  and  yet  it  seemed 
the  South  would  never  move.  It  was  not  that  their  land 
was  ravaged  and  laid  bare — their  people  had  reclaimed 
this  same  land  when  a primal  wilderness.  It  was  not  the 
burden  of  negro  education — they  thought  that  a good  in- 
vestment ; nor  was  it  that  temporary  negro  domination  had 
imposed  colossal  financial  burdens  ($293,000,000) — they 
had  faced  greater  odds.  [It  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
two  and  one-half  thousand  million  dollars  worth  of  prop- 
erty was  wiped  out  of  existence  in  the  South  by  the  procla- 
mation of  emancipation.]  It  was  without  lament,  but 
rather  with  a grim  pride  in  their  handiwork  that  they  paid 
their  share  of  the  Federal  pensions  and  voluntarily  sup- 
ported, as  best  they  could,  their  own  veterans.  But  new 
evils  came  as  old  evils  grew.  The  eternal  vigilance  re- 
quired to  keep  down  and  repress  the  negro  vote  wore  upon 
them,  for  this  necessity  always  bore  more  harshly  upon  the 
conscience  and  morale  of  the  white  man  than  it  did  upon 
the  hide  of  the  black.  They  were  weary,  weary  to  the  very 


15 


core,  but  unbroken  in  spirit,  when  at  last  they  began  to 
feel  that  the  burden  moved — the  South  was  rising. 

It  was  not  until  the  load  was  well  lifted  that  the  South 
began  to  see  the  burden  that  had  held  her  down — an  ani- 
mate, living,  growing  burden,  the  negro — the  negro  to 
0whom  the  South  had  hitherto  always  looked  as  a source 
of  profit.  It  was  their  first  intimation  that  the  negro  had 
changed,  but  he  has  changed,  and  the  next  generation  will 
change  more.  This,  however,  I wish  to  recall — that  when 
the  “carpet  bagger”  had  departed  with  the  profits  of  the 
“Freedman’s  Bureau”  in  his  pocket,  the  poor,  wasted, 
stricken  South,  from  a spirit  of  true  altruism,  spent 
hundreds  of  millions  in  an  honest  effort  to  improve  the 
negro. 

That  slavery  had  inherent  evils  no  man  can  deny,  but 
under  Southern  slavery  this  much  can  be  said — the  negro 
improved  both  physically  and  morally,  and,  as  a race,  he 
was  content.  The  Southern  slave  owner  made  a man  of 
the  savage;  by  intelligent  and  self-sacrificing  care  he  over- 
came the  natural  tendency  of  a tropical  race  to  decline  in 
other  climes,  and  he  even,  as  we  shall  see  later,  reversed  the 
law  and  made  negro  mortality  in  the  South  less  than  the 
white.  (See  table,  page  23.)  Slavery  as  it  existed  here 
was  designed  to  shield  and  protect  the  negro  at  every  point, 
and  this  it  did,  but  of  necessity  the  more  it  protected  the 
more  helpless  it  left  him  when  its  guardianship  was  with- 
drawn. And  who  withdrew  this  guardianship  ? The  fine 
Italian  hand  which  before  the  war  bedecked  the  pagan  with 
a “halo,”  and  after  the  war  mocked  the  ex-slave  with  the 
ballot,  and  which  now  black-balls  the  “coon”  in  the  trades 
union,  is  the  same  which  loosed  him  for  the  sacrifice.  But 
God  is  not  mocked,  and  when  France  recovers  from  the 


16 


influence  of  the  altruistic*  cry  of  17133,  then  may  the 
aristocracy  of  culture  and  refinement  in  the  Northern 
States  of  America  see  the  dawn  of  deliverance.  Their 
walking  delegate  of  to-day  with  all  that  he  implies  is  the 
mixed  product  of  false  altruism  and  the  true  anarchy  bom 
of  it.  i 

There  is  much  use  in  this  day  and  generation  of  the  term 
“survival  of  the  fittest,”  but  few  who  use  it  ever  stop  to 
think  of  the  complemental  axiom,  “the  death  of  the  unfit.” 
Yet  that  truth  has  sounded  the  death  knell  of  untold  mil- 
lions. Where  is  the  Tasmanian,  the  Carib,  the  Hawaiian, 
the  Iroquois  and  others  of  the  American  tribes  that  first 
met  the  white  man  ? Their  doom  was  sealed  when  “the 
fittest”  first  set  foot  on  their  shores.  They  perished  as  wild 
animals  perish  before  man.  But  all  wild  animals  do  not 
so  perish.  If  man  needs  them  they  survive.  Here  in  the 
Sunny  South  my  little  boys  have  a dozen  English  rabbits 
which  they  breed  to  any  demand,  but  if  I were  to  force 
them  to  turn  them  loose  in  this  land  of  orchards,  shotguns, 
cur-dogs  and  cats  not  one  of  them  would  survive.  No! 
Subjected  to  natural  law  they  would  go  like  snow  before 
the  sun,  and  so,  in  due  time,  will  the  negro  go.  He  is  liv- 
ing even  now  on  the  stamina  and  morality  of  slavery  days. 

Now  it  must  be  clearly  understood  that  during  slavery 
the  negro,  as  a race,  was  not  subjected  to  natural  law; 
his  existence  here  from  the  beginning,  was  absolutely  arti- 
ficial. Coming  to  us  as  an  hereditary  pagan,  he  was  for 
over  two  centuries  a slave  in  whom  the  functions  of  nutri- 
tion, muscular  activity  and  reproduction  were  cultivated 
and  given  full  play,  and  every  function  that  tended  to 


♦“Liberte,  egalite,  fraternite,”  was  the  cry  of  the  Bastile.  Such 
a cry  could  not  appeal  to  the  gentle  and  the  respectable,  but  only  to 
the  slums.  It  was  the  cry  of  the  proletariat  for  an  assault  upon 
aristocracy,  as  here. 


17 


make  him  inimical  to  the  interests  of  his  master,  i.  e., 
independent,  was  repressed.  He  was  consequently  fitted 
only  for  slavery. 

With  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  there  began  for 
the  negro  a new  existence.  For  the  first  time  since  com- 
ing to  America  he  was  under  the  remorseless  laws  of 
nature,  and  being  unfit  to  meet  their  demands  here,  he 
from  that  day,  began  to  fall,  and  these  are  the  signs  of  his 
fall. 

(I  will  say  before  giving  figures,  that  the  simplest 
method  of  estimating  the  progress  of  a race  or  people  is  to 
compare  that  race  'with  some  other  race  under  similar  en- 
vironment or  with  their  own  people  at  some  other  (earlier) 
period  of  time.  The  inherent  diversity  of  the  two  races 
here  compared,  and  the  necessary  difference  in  conditions 
in  the  times  compared,  render  the  problem  difficult,  but  the 
results  are  so  extremely  one-sided  as  to  banish  doubt. ) 

First,  we  will  consider  material  prosperity.  There  are 
but  three  States  in  the  South  that  list  white  and  colored 
property  separately,  these  being  Virginia,  FTorth  Carolina 
and  Georgia.  [Hoffman’s  “Race  Traits  and  Tendencies 
of  the  American  Xegro,”  p.  298.]  In  these  the  per  capita 
wealth  of  the  negroes  was  in  1891  as  follows:  Virginia, 

$18.90;  Xorth  Carolina,  $14.10;  Georgia,  $14.30;  aver- 
age per  capita,  $15.70  as  compared  with  an  average  of 
$322.30  for  the  whites  of  the  same  three  States.  The  rela- 
tively high  per  capita  of  $18.90  for  the  Virginia  negroes 
demonstrates  what  all  must  have  noticed — that  the  negroes 
there  are  physically  and  mentally  superior  to  any  in  the 
South.  Virginia  was  a slave-breeding  State,  and  here 
naturally  the  best  were  kept  and  only  the  “culls”  sold,  but 
nevertheless  throughout  the  South  it  is  still  a boast  to  be  an 
“ole  \ irginny  nigger.”  But  if  these  are  the  best  negroes 


18 


what  must  be  the  wealth  of  the  negroes  of  the  general  South 
when  the  taxable  property  of  the  Virginia  negro  is  but  3.1 
per  cent  of  the  whole  ? In  Virginia  moreover,  the  State 
expends  on  the  negro  annually  [report  of  State  Auditor, 
quoted  by  Hoffman,  p.  301,] 


For  criminal  expenses. ; $204,018 

For  education 324,364 

For  lunatics 80, 000 

Total  negro  expenses 608, 382 

Total  negro  taxes  103, 565 


Annual  loss  to  Virginia,  account  of  negro 504, 817 


It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  the  annual  net  loss 
on  the  negro  population  of  this  State  is  over  half  a million 
dollars,  and  that  the  total  negro  taxes  paid  is  even  less  by 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  than  the  sum  annually  ex- 
pended by  the  whites  to  repress  negro  crime.  If  this  from 
the  best,  what  of  the  “culls  ?”  It  must  also  be  mentioned 
here  that  the  larger  part  of  the  taxable  property  of  the 
negroes  throughout  the  South  consists  of  small  rural  or 
suburban  “patches”  of  real  estate  either  given  them  by  their 
old  masters  or  else  sold  for  a song,  and  that  even  the  “un- 
earned increment”  of  appreciation  is  due  also  to  the  whites 
who  have  built  up  the  town  and  enhanced  the  value  of  the 
previous  gift,  pure  or  quasi. 

Secondly,  let  us  consider  the  negro  from  the  standpoint 
of  criminality.  In  Virginia  (where  I now  live)  there  are 
now  (census  1890)  1,020,000  whites  to  635,000  blacks,  but 
by  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of  the  Virginia  peni- 
tentiary for  1899,  there  were  among  the  State  convicts 
only  404  whites  as  against  1,694  blacks,  giving  on  the  basis 
of  population,  negro  criminality  as  7.4  times  greater  than 
the  white.  The  latest  reports  of  the  State  penitentiaries 
from  Maryland  to  Texas  show  about  the  same  results,  ris- 


19 


ing  to  9.4  and  8.0  in  Georgia,  where  progressive  municipal 
administration  draws  the  negro  to  town,  and  falling  as  low 
as  5.4  in  Mississippi  where  the  negroes  live  in  the  country 
and  where  white  domination  and  negro  disfranchisement 
are  most  complete.  It  will  be  understood  that  State  con- 
victs represent  chiefly  serious  crime,  hut  the  jails  and  the 
chain  gangs  which,  in  the  South,  teem  with  additional 
thousands,  are  blacker  still  in  proportion,  for  the  Southern 
country  negro  as  yet,  thank  God,  figures  chiefly  in  the 
minor  crimes.  In  the  cities  he  is,  as  a race,  fast  throwing 
off  every  vestige  of  moral  restraint,  as  we  see  from  the 
Washington  Police  Department  report,  quoted  by  the  Bal- 
timore Sun  of  March  30,  last,  which  says  of  a city  where 
the  negro  does  not  constitute  one-third  of  the  population,  as 
follows:  “According  to  one  of  the  recent  annual  reports 

of  the  metropolitan  police  department  there  were,  in  the 
year,  10,587  arrests  of  whites  and  11,975  of  blacks.  More 
than  twice  as  many  negroes  as  whites  were  arrested  for 
carrying  concealed  weapons,  more  than  twice  as  many  for 
disorderly  conduct,  more  than  twice  as  many  for  assault 
and  for  assault  and  battery,  more  than  twice  as  many  for 
petty  larceny  and  thirteen  more  for  grand  larceny,  twice 
as  many  for  profanity,  seven  times  as  many  for  criminal 
assault,  and  more  than  five  times  as  many  for  housebreak- 
ing at  night.  Seven  murders  were  committed  by  negroes 
to  two  by  whites.  In  all  the  most  heinous  offenses  known 
to  criminology  the  negroes  were  largely  in  the  excess.  A 
very  large  proportion  of  all  crimes  were  committed  by 
young  negro  toughs  under  25  years  of  age.”  And  this 
from  the  “Mecca”  where  rather  than  repeal  the  fifteenth 
amendment  and  confess  its  folly,  this  government  annually 
commits  the  outrage  which  brought  on  the  revolution 
of  ’76. 

But  lest  some  “altruist”  may  think  that  his  one-time 


20 


brother  in  black  has  suffered  at  Southern  hands,  I will 
quote  elsewhere:  In  a recent  paper  on  “Negro  Criminal- 

ity,” [Address  before  American  Social  Science  Associa- 
tion, September,  1899,]  by  Prof.  Walter  F.  Wilcox,  of 
Cornell  University,  a native  of  New  England,  and  now 
statistician  of  the  Census  Office,  we  find  that  “in  the  South- 
ern States  there  were  six  white  prisoners  to  every  10,000 
whites  and  twenty-nine  negro  prisoners  to  every  10,000 
negroes.”  As  Mr.  Wilcox  himself  says,  this  difference 
might  at  first  glance  be  ascribed  to  sectional  prejudice,  and 
he  proceeds  to  combat  this  by  making  the  declaration  that 
“in  the  Northern  States  in  1890  there  were  twelve  white 
prisoners  to  every  10,000  whites  and  69  negro  prisoners  to 
every  10,000  negroes.”  In  other  words,  if  prejudice  plays 
any  part  it  is  most  pronounced  at  the  North.  This  crimi- 
nality of  the  negro,  moreover,  is  not  standing  fast,  for,  as 
Mr.  Wilcox  further  says,  “The  negro  prisoners  in  the 
Southern  States  to  10,000  negroes  increased  between  1880 
and  1890,  29  per  cent,  while  the  white  prisoners  to  10,000 
whites  increased  only  8 per  cent”  In  other  words,  crime 
among  the  American  negro  is,  since  the  war,  increasing 
with  alarming  rapidity  because  the  negro,  racially  feeble  in 
the  power  of  conscience,  is  unable  to  meet  the,  to  him, 
idealistic  demands  of  the  law.  The  short,  quick  shrift  of 
the  cowhide  which  he  has  always  known,  he  can  connect 
with  the  crime  and  abstain,  but  the  slow  procedure  of 
Saxon  jurisprudence  makes  the  offense  and  the  punish- 
ment as  far  apart  in  his  mind  as  his  religion  and  morality 
often  are  in  fact. 

But  he  is  not  only  increasing  in  crime ; he  is  developing 
what  seems  at  first  glance  for  him,  a new  form  of  crime. 
In  a recent  paper  of  rare  candor  and  merit  on  the  “Recent 
Erotic  Tendency  of  the  Southern  Negro,”  [Carolina  Med- 
ical Journal,  March,  1900,  p.  2,]  Dr.  S.  C.  Baker,  of  Sum- 


21 


ter,  S.  C.,  savs,  in  speaking  of  this  new  crime  for  the  negro : 
“Prior  to  their  emancipation  the  crime  of  rape  was  almost 
unheard  of.  I have  been  able  to  learn  of  but  one  instance 
of  even  attempted  rape,  in  this  State  (South  Carolina), 
and  that  was  unsuccessful.”  But  speaking  of  the  present 
he  says:  “The  report  of  the  Attorney-General  of  South 

Carolina  for  1899  shows  that  there  have  been  thirteen  con- 
victions for  rape,  and  for  assault  with  intent  to  ravish, 
twelve  convictions  during  that  year.  All  of  them  except 
one  w'ere  cases  of  negro  men  against  white  women,  the 
exception  being  the  case  of  a negro  man  against  a negro 
woman.”  Next,  he  confirms  the  views  I have  previously 
expressed  in  “The  American  Negro:  His  Past  and  Fu- 
ture,” which  were  that  it  is  the  young  negro  of  the  South 
(the  generation  of  negro  with  the  one  hundred  million 
dollar  education)  that  most  shows  the  evidence  of  a rever- 
sion to  barbarism  and  savagery,  by  the  following:  “The 

court  stenographer  of  the  third  judicial  circuit  of  this 
State  furnished  me  the  following  information  on  the  sub- 
ject for  the  past  ten  years,  as  applying  to  his  circuit:  It 

may  be  remarked  that  the  third  circuit  is  about  an  average 
of  the  circuits  of  the  State  as  to  the  density  of  population 
and  its  complexion,  as  to  urban  and  rural  inhabitants,  in- 
telligence and  education  of  negroes,  and  so  forth,  and  South 
Carolina  is  possibly  about  an  average  of  the  Southern 
States  in  these  particulars.  He  says : “About  twenty-five 

cases  have  come  up  for  trial  in  this  circuit  during  the  past 
ten  years,  besides  about  five  others  which  did  not  come  up 
for  trial  because  of  the  lynching  of  the  accused.  In  all  of 
these,  with  one  exception,  the  negroes  implicated  were 
under  thirty  years  of  age.  In  the  excepted  case  there  were 
several  negroes  implicated,  one  being  an  older  man  who 
seemed  to  have  been  led  on  by  the  younger  ones.  For  the 
crime  of  assault  with  intent  to  ravish  I recall  about  ten 


22 


cases,  and  all  by  negroes  under  thirty  years  of  age.  I am 
of  opinion  that  95  per  cent  of  all  crime  in  the  third  circuit 
is  committed  by  the  negro,  and  of  this  95  per  cent  90  per 
cent  is  committed  by  the  free-born  negro.  It  is  very  rare 
that  you  see  an  old  slave  charged  with  any  crime.  . The 
majority  of  negro  criminals  are  from  fifteen  to  thirty  years 
of  age.” 

This,  as  figures  go,  seems  to  indicate  a new  form  of 
crime  for  the  negro,  but  I know,  as  you  know,  that  it  does 
not  mean  this.  Did  our  prognathic,  dolichocephalic  can- 
nibal come  to  us  with  brutal  instincts  moulded  by  centuries 
of  crime  on  every  lineament  of  his  visage  and  yet  clothed 
in  the  beatitude  of  sexual  purity?  Ho!  When  I see  the 
leopard  change  bis  spots  then  will  I believe  it.  It  is  a 
reversion  pure  and  simple  and  these  figures  simply  point 
again  to  the  superb  moral  influence  of  slavery.  In  the 
hands  of  a gentle  people  the  negro  came  quite  near  the 
gentleman,  illiterate  perhaps,  but  not  ignorant,  for  mark 
you,  there  is  a difference,  as  the  history  of  some  of  our 
great  men  can  testify. 

But  the  question  with  us  to-day  is,  can  a race  keep  up 
this  rapid  criminal  decline  and  live  ? Both  the  experience 
of  the  past  and  the  present  testify  that  it  can  not.  Old  as 
it  is  the  saying  “The  wages  of  sin  is  death”  might  well  have 
been  taken  from  some  modem  work  of  hygiene. 

Thirdly,  I will  take  up  the  question  of  negro  vital  sta- 
tistics, and  here  I must  pay  my  respects  to  the  work  of 
Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  from  whose  “Race  Traits  and 
Tendencies  of  the  American  Hegro”  [The  MacMillan 
Company,  Hew  York,]  most  of  these  statistics  are  taken. 
An  able,  careful  statistician,  he  brings  an  unbiased  Ger- 
man mind  to  the  solution  of  the  greatest  problem  America 
has  ever  known.  This  book  should  be  in  the  bands  of 
every  man  who  has  at  heart  the  future  of  bis  country. 


23  • 


These  figures  obtained  from  official  reports  are  amply  cor- 
roborated by  private  observation.  Let  me  first  take  statis- 
tics bearing  on  the  period  before  the  war. 

I have  before  spoken  of  the  fact  that  in  slavery  the  negro 
increased  beyond  measure.  He  was  at  that  time  really 
more  prolific  than  the  general  white  population  of  the 
South.  This  was  owing  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  the 
negroes  were  owned  by  the  wealthy  and,  being  valuable, 
every  care,  hygienic  and  moral,  was  exercised,  not  only 
to  see  that  they  increased,  but  to  rear  them  strong  and 
healthy  when  bona.  The  following  statistics  of  four  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  South  before  and  after  the  war  will 
show,  first,  that  there  was  a greater  death  rate  among  the 
whites  before  the  war  than  among  the  negroes,  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  the  mortality  among  the  negroes  since  the  war 
has  largely  increased : 

ANNUAL  MORTALITY  PER  THOUSAND.* 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  from  1822-1894. 

Before  the  War.  After  the  War. 

White 25.98  White 26.77 

Negro 24. 05  Negro 43. 29 

Savannah,  Ga.,  from  1856-1894. 

Before  the  War.  After  the  War. 

White 37.19  White 32.51 

Negro 34. 07  Negro 44. 37 

Mobile,  Ala.,  from  1843-1894. 

Before  the  War.  After  the  War. 

White 47.58  White 24.02 

Negro 29.66  Negro 35.23 

New  Orleans,  La.,  from  1849-1894. 

Before  the  War.  After  the  War. 

White 59.60  White 26.71 

Negro 52.10  Negro 42.56 

Average  of  four  Southern  cities : 

Before  the  War.  After  the  War. 

White 42.59  White 27.70 

Negro 34.97  Negro. 41.31 

•Hoffman’s  "Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  American  Negro,” 
pages  53-54. 


24 


(Parenthetically,  observe  that  the  whites  are  bestowing 
some  care  on  their  own  health  since  relieved  of  the  negro.) 

The  next  stage  of  this  subject  will  be  the  mortality  of 
the  negro  since  the  war,  and  I will  begin  with  the  unborn 
child.  It  is  known  to  everyone,  especially  to  the  physi- 
cian, that  children  begotten  out  of  wedlock  are  less  apt  to 
be  reared  than  those  begotten  in  legal  matrimony.  In  ap- 
proaching this  subject  I will  first  take  a city  where  the 
negro  is  as  favorably  circumstanced  as  at  any  spot  within 
the  United  States,  viz:  the  capital  city, Washington.  The 
average  for  the  sixteen  years  extending  from  1879  to  1894, 
shows  that  while  2.9  per  cent  of  the  white  children  bom 
were  illegitimate,  22.5  per  cent  of  all  the  negroes  bom  in 
that  city  were  out  of  wedlock.  But  that  is  far  from  being 
the  worst  of  it.  In  the  sixteen  years  extending  from  1879 
to  1894,  the  per  cent  of  negro  children  bora  out  of  wedlock 
in  this  free  city  has  risen  from  17.6  per  cent  to  the  astound- 
ing figure  of  26.5  per  annum. 

Hext,  let  me  consider  death  from  still-birth  in  two  cities 
of  fairly  representative  type: 

*DEATH  FROM  STILL-BIRTH  PER  100,000  POPULATION  UNDER  ONE  YEAR. 

Washington,  D.  C.  Baltimore,  Md. 

White 6,528  White 7,024 

Negro 20, 152  Negro 16,988 

The  negro  certainly  leads  in  not  being  bom,  but  now  let 
us  see  how  the  infants  of  this  once  strong  and  virile  race 
are  meeting  the  straggle  for  existence  under  natural  law : 

DEATH  FROM  DEBILITY,  INANITION,  ETC.,  PER  100,000  POPULATION 
UNDER  ONE  YEAR. 

Washington,  D.  C.  Baltimore,  Md. 

White 4,181  White 4,800 

Negro 10,045  Negro .11,884 

* “ Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American  Negro,”  pages 
65-66. 


25 


The  rate  of  increase  in  licentiousness,  etc.,  (for  these 
figures  point  to  syphilis)  in  these  cities  is  fully  borne  out 
by  the  reports  from  other  cities. 

Next,  I will  consider  the  comparative  (white  and  negro) 
mortality  in  childhood.  For  this  I am  able  to  present  the 
statistics  of  three  of  the  largest  cities  in  the  South  for  the 
year  1890  : In  the  city  of  New  Orleans  for  every  thousand 

white  children  born,  there  died  within  the  first  year  269 ; 
of  negro  children  born,  there  died  430.  In  the  city  of 
Oharlestoi?  for  every  thousand  white  children  born,  there 
died  the  first  year  200  ; of  negro  children  461.  In  the  city 
of  Richmond  for  every  thousand  white  children  born,  there 
died  the  first  year  187,  and  of  negro  children  born,  there 
died  530 — over  one-half.  And  yet  they  tell  us  there  is  no 
race  problem!  For  the  years  after  infancy  the  statistics 
are  not  so  complete  as  regards  age,  and  I must  turn  from 
the  child  statistics  to  those  of  general  mortality. 

In  the  five  years  extending  from  1890  to  1894  inclusive, 
the  general  death  rate  in  the  population  of  the  cities  of 
Washington,  Baltimore,  Richmond,  Memphis,  Louisville, 
Atlanta,  Savannah,  Charleston,  Mobile  and  New  Orleans 
gave  a general  death  rate  for  the  whites  of  20.12  per  an- 
num per  thousand,  and  for  the  negroes,  32.61  per  annum 
per  thousand.  [Hoffman’s  “Race  Traits  and  Tendencies 
of  the  American  Negro,  p.  39.] 

These  figures  speak  for  themselves.  The  negro,  at  least 
in  the  cities  of  the  South,  is  already  dying  much  more  rap- 
idly than  the  white.  The  question  now  to  be  asked  is,  is 
this  true  of  the  rural  population  ? To  that  I answer,  in 
less  extent,  yes.  Moreover  it  must  be  understood  there  is 
a general  drift  of  the  negro  to  the  cities  and  towns,  and 
once  there  the  negro  seldom  returns.  The  temptations  of 
the  cities  appeal  wonderfully  to  the  negro;  there  is  more 
excitement,  more  opportunity  for  “picking  up  a living,” 


26 


and  the  gregarious  tendencies  of  this  race,  cultivated 
through  ages  in  Africa,  which  is  a land  of  small  villages 
rather  than  of  peasant  homes,  is  gratified.  It  is  a fact, 
however,  that  notwithstanding  this  high  death  rate,  the 
negro  population  in  the  cities  continues  to  increase.  This 
is  not  because  the  negro  birth  rate  exceeds  the  death  rate, 
for  it  does  not;  it  is  because  the  negroes  continue  to  flock 
to  the  cities  and  increase  the  population  despite  the  terri- 
bly high  death  rate.  Xo  increase  in  the  rural  districts  can 
ever  offset  this  terrible  annual  drain.  In  the  destruction 
of  the  race  the  city  is  to  play  a most  important  part  and  it 
is  a thing  which  nothing  in  the  negro’s  racial  experience 
will  enable  him  to  meet. 

In  explanation  of  this  terrible  death  rate,  let  us  look  and 
see  what  has  caused  it.  From  all  that  I can  gather  from 
the  medical  men  of  the  South  interested  in  this  matter,  the 
three  great  influencing  diseases  of  the  negro  population 
are  tuberculosis,  syphilis  and  enteric  (typhoid)  fever.  Of 
course  cancer  and  everything  else  (except  property)  is  on 
the  increase  with  a markedly  criminal  race,  but  these  are 
the  great  three. 

With  regard  to  tuberculosis  the  first  thing  I will  show  is 
that  fourteen  American  cities,  extending  from  Boston  to 
Xew  Orleans,  but  chiefly  Southern,  give  for  every  100,000 
population,  an  annual  death  rate  from  tuberculosis  of  280 
for  the  whites  and  591  for  the  negro  population.  These 
statistics  are  based  upon  the  census  of  1890  and  the  health 
reports  of  the  cities.  Xow,  for  the  sake  of  comparison 
with  ante-bellum  days,  compare  these  figures  with  the  sta- 
tistics based  upon  the  health  reports  for  Charleston,  S.  C., 
from  1822  to  1894  inclusive,  and  we  will  find  that  from 
1822  to  1848  the  annual  death  rate  for  100,000  population 
from  tuberculosis  among  the  whites  was  347 ; among  the 
nesroes  342,  that  is,  fewer  negroes  died  from  tuberculosis 


♦ 


27 


than  whites;  but  from  1865  to  1894  the  annual  death  rate 
from  tuberculosis  among  the  whites  per  100,000  popula- 
tion was  only  213,  while  for  the  negToes  it  bad  already 
risen  to  576.  Xow,  let  us  turn  to  the  next  of  the  three 
chief  diseases  from  which  this  race  is  suffering — syphilis. 
I will  say  here  first,  that  syphilis  rarely  kills  directly ; it  is 
with  the  adult,  rather  a predisposing  cause  of  death, 
though  a direct  cause  of  foetal  and  infant  death.  (See 
table,  p.  24.)  But  if  you  have  ever  studied  the  cause  of 
the  taking  off  of  our  American  Indian,  the  Hawaiian,  the 
Maori,  the  Australian,  the  Tasmanian,  etc.,  it  will  be  seen 
that  syphilis  has  played  the  principal  part.  A most  in- 
teresting table  is  found  on  page  325  of  Hoffman’s  work, 
comparing  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States,  which 
have  held  their  own,  with  those  which  have  decreased,  be- 
tween the  years  1882  and  1895.  Tribes  which  have  been 
isolated  and  thus  held  aloof  from  syphilitic  infection  have 
held  their  own,  while  those  which  have  broken  up  their 
tribal  relations,  have  accepted  ‘‘squaw  men”  and  have  had 
free  intercourse  with  whites  of  a criminal  class,  have 
almost  perished.  So  it  is  with  the  negro.  The  breaking 
up  of  the  plantation  home;  migration  to  thp  city,  the 
crowding  and  temptations  to  vice  incident  to  city  life,  are 
all  working  to  his  detriment.  An  impure  home  is  an 
unusually  unprolific  home;  copulation  is  not  all  that  is 
needful.  Tf  this  alone  were  necessary  to  fecundity,  the 
French  problem  would  long  since  have  been  solved,  which 
it  is  not. 

Lastly,  typhoid  fever.  Around  nearly  every  city  and 
village  in  the  South  there  is  an  irregular  zone  of  negro 
habitations.  These  usually  are  in  the  “hollows”  and  val- 
leys and  they  are  almost  invariably  supplied  with  drinking 
water  from  shallow  wells,  whether  the  central  village  have 
waterworks  or  not.  The  condition  of  this  low-lying  popu- 


28 


lation  is,  for  typhoid  fever,  infinitely  less  favorable  than 
that  of  the  whites,  who  usually  use  “city  water”  or,  if  not, 
own  better  and  more  salubrious  sites.  The  suburban 
spring  and  the  low-lying  well  are  the  bane  of  this  people. 
Within  certain  limits,  the  conditions  here  given  apply  in 
the  country.  A negro  digs  his  well  where  he  will  reach 
water  easiest,  i.  e.,  on  low  ground,  while  his  shanty  and 
“out-houses”  are  perched  above.  In  slavery  days  the  large 
negro  quarters  were,  for  the  age,  models  of  hygiene  because 
an  epidemic  in  the  “quarters”  was  a financial  crisis  for 
the  owner.  But  who  now  looks  after  the  “ward  of  the 
nation  ?” 

Beyond  the  facts  here  set  forth  I may  state  that  as  a 
Southerner  and  a physician,  I am  familiar  with  the  physi- 
cians of  the  South,  and  it  is  the  almost  universal  opinion 
of  these  men,  who  should  and  do  know  more  of  the  negro 
than  all  other  classes  combined,  that  the  negro,  as  a race, 
is  steadily  degenerating  both  morally  and  physically.  The 
last  census  showed  a decrease  in  gain  as  compared  with  the 
preceding  and  when  the  tide  once  turns  the  end  will  be  in 
sight.  [The  Maori  decreased  from  142,000  in  1823  to 
34,000  in  1890.] 

In  conclusion,  all  things  point  to  the  fact  that  the  negro 
as  a race  is  reverting  to  barbarism  with  the  inordinate 
criminality  and  degradation  of  that  state.  It  seems, 
moreover,  that  he  is  doomed  at  no  distant  day,  to  raciai 
extinction.  If  reproduction  ceases  eight  million  will  die 
out  about  as  rapidly  as  eight  hundred,  as  the  outlook  for 
this  people  is  black  indeed. 

What  brought  about  this  condition  ? In  my  opinion 
emancipation — the  negro  feels  that  this  was  a dies  irae. 
He  has  no  enthusiasm  for  “Emancipation  Day” — sounded 
the  death  knell  of  the  negro,  but  it  did  not  of  necessity 
decree  his  speedy  end.  Something  else  was  needed  and 


29 


fate  supplied  the  need,  the  negro  was  duly  crowned  with 
the  ballot  and  given  control  of  the  South.  That  settled  it. 
Enmity  was  deliberately  put  between  the  son  of  the  mas- 
ter, the  only  man  wdio  ever  really  loved  the  slave,  and  the 
son  of  the  slave.  The  only  sincerely  friendly  hand  the 
negro  ever  knew  was  perforce  turned  against  him,  and 
without  it  he  is  falling.  What  will  save  him  ? Will  edu- 
cation ? The  South  has  given  him  the  best  she  had,  and 
we  see  the  result.  Will  industrial  education  prove  a pana- 
cea ? The  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  [G.  R.  Stet- 
son “The  White  Wan’s  Problem,”  p.  6]  for  1889-90,  shows 
that  of  1,243  graduates  of  seventeen  colored  industrial 
schools,  three  only  pursued  the  trade  for  which  educated, 
twelve  were  farming,  693  teaching  academic  schools,  and 
the  rest  had  joined  the  non-producing  professions  and  pur- 
suits. The  wealth  of  the  Indies  could  not  give  this  entire 
race  technical  training  any  more  than  it  could  satiate  the 
appetite  of  those  thriving  on  the  brokerage  of  philanthropy. 
Industrial  training  should  be  reserved  for  a more  indus- 
trious people.  In  my  opinion  nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  the  negro  will  go  as  the  Tasmanian  and  the  Carib 
have  gone,  but  till  then  he  is  our  problem.  I say  our 
because  the  New  South,  child  of  the  Old,  young,  strong 
and  undaunted,  proposes  to  deal  with  this  matter  as  she 
sees  best.  The  future  of  the  negro  surely  prompts  com- 
passion, charity  and  mercy — these  he  will  get  in  full 
measure — but  the  white  man  of  the  South  should  not  and 
will  not  re-enslave  himself  for  the  benefit  of  the  black. 
Slavery  is  forever  gone — and  with  it  went  the  bonds  which 
for  two  centuries  fettered  the  master,  and  also  every  iota 
of  his  responsibility  for  this  grand  but  ghastly  tragedy — 
The  Sacrifice  of  a Race. 


30 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Report  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Virginia,’’  1900. 

“ Dietary  Studies  of  Negroes  in  Eastern  Virginia,”  Bulletin  71, 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

“The  Southern  States  of  the  American  Union,”  J.  L.  M.  Currv. 

‘ ■ Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American  Negro,”  Fred  L. 
Hoffman. 

“The  Negro  Population  of  the  South,”  P.  A.  Bruce,  Conservative 
Review,  November,  1899. 

“ The  Transplantation  of  a Race,”  Prof.  N.  S.  Shaler,  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  March,  1900. 

“ The  Negro.”  Dr.  J.  H.  Claiborne.  Virginia  Medical  Semi-Monthly, 
April,  1900. 

“The  Earth  and  Its  Inhabitants.”  Africa.  Elisee  Recluse,  Vols.  I 
and  III. 

“The  White  Man’s  Problem,”  George  R.  Stetson. 

“ Negro  Criminality,”  Walter  L.  Wilcox. 

“The  Genesis  of  the  United  States,”  Alexander  Brown,  Vol.  II. 

“The  Uncivilized  Races  of  Men  in  All  Countries  of  the  World,” 
Rev.  J.  G.  Wood,  Vol.  I. 

“The  Negro  in  Maryland,”  Jeffrey  R.  Brockett. 

“Carolina  Medical  Journal,”  March,  1900. 


I 


I 


